


Perfect

by orphan_account



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types, Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: Deetzland, Fluff, Multi, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:48:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22706458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The first Valentine's Day that the Deetzes are spending with the spectral partners the Maitlands. The evening is going to be perfect, right?
Relationships: Charles Deetz/Delia Deetz/Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland
Kudos: 16





	Perfect

Valentine’s Day is hard enough for a couple. The pressure was near crushing now that Charles and Delia Deetz had become a couple with Adam and Barbara Maitland. It was the first Valentine’s Day the four would be spending together as a unit. They hadn’t been dating for too long either, a few months really, and had only known each other as friends for about a year before that. It was important that this was a perfect evening. 

The four of them were in the kitchen early that morning, quietly spitballing ideas off of each other. The sizzle of cooking food and the bubbling and hissing of the coffee pot masked their whispers from any eavesdroppers. Charles had made it clear that he wasn’t ready for Lydia to find out about the relationship. The others couldn’t help but agree. The past few years hadn’t been kind to the Deetz family, Lydia needed normalcy. At least, for a little while longer. Charles was always ready to move forward if he felt it was what he needed. Life experience tends to help people push forward past tragedies and accept change. 

Still, no amount of life experience could have prepared the man for sharing his life with two ghosts, and loving them as if he was just as married to them as the red-haired woman to his left. Actually, having Delia sitting down at the kitchen table for breakfast like this, hair left down in long waves instead of tied up and no makeup applied, was a rare sight. Delia was always very well put together, never a hair out of place. And she almost never had breakfast with them, always making a protein shake and going to the local YMCA first thing in the morning. The other three were glad to have her at the breakfast table, even if she was half-asleep.

The two women had been putting in late nights trying to plan the event. Both had the instincts of a hostess, though Barbara was a much more reserved hostess, better suited for more casual affairs, than Delia. Still, the two were trying to see if their styles couldn’t meld together to create an evening that everyone would enjoy. 

“Oh!” Barbara suddenly exclaimed, walking away from the stove entirely, leaving Adam, one of the only other people in the house trusted around the stove, scrambling to make sure breakfast didn’t burn. 

Charles put his morning paper down in concern, watching as Barbara grabbed the step stool and set it up in front of the fridge. “What is it, Barbara?” he asked. 

“I think I just got the perfect plan, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner,” she explained as she rummaged in the cabinet. She exclaimed and pulled a box with a picture of a ceramic pot with a gas burner under it out. “We could make fondue!”

“Barbie, that’s a wonderful idea but you know I don’t eat cheese,” Delia said sympathetically, not wanting to crush the blonde’s spirits. 

“Oh, I know that,” Barbara responded, already well accustomed to accommodating Delia’s vegan diet. “We can have chocolate fondue for dessert and do an indoor picnic. Fruits, slices of bread, wine, cheeses, vegetables,” she trailed off. “It’ll be great!”

There was a quiet moment of consideration. “There was a new vegan recipe I’ve been meaning to try out,” Adam pipes in. “It makes small portions, so I haven’t known when I could make it. This would be a great chance.”

“Sounds perfect to me,” Delia agrees. Barbara smiles wide, a smile so brilliant it could truly light up the room, and sets the box on the counter. “We’ll have to make a grocery list before I go to work, I can stop and do the shopping on my way home.”

Barbara presses a kiss to the top of Delia’s head. “I’ll get that started for you, dear.”

Valentine’s day had come quickly, the next few days spent in preparation. Spare blankets had been washed and dried, pillows were fluffed, the floor was vacuumed, swept, mopped, and vacuumed again. If you were going to be eating on the floor you wanted it to be clean, after all. Cooking was almost constantly going on in the kitchen, recipes being tried, scraped and altered until they were perfected. 

Delia had spent days primping herself for this evening. Face masks were applied nightly to keep her skin soft and smooth. Hair masks were applied to do the same. And, after a waxing appointment that made her envy Barbara her perpetually perfect skin, she was beginning to feel ready. But a morning locked in her room sitting in front of her mirror to carefully curl and coif her hair wouldn’t hurt. A little extra meditation wouldn’t hurt either, and she found herself sitting Indian-style on the floor, eyes closed and breathing deeply, more than once. 

Barbara, on the other hand, didn’t put nearly as much effort into her appearance as Delia. One of the benefits of her spectral status was that she looked essentially identical to the way she did the day she died. Sure, her skin had lost its natural rosy glow, but it didn’t require any extra care. The little makeup she wore when alive now seemed to be plastered to her face too, making that one less step she had to worry about. No, Barbara instead spent her day in the kitchen carefully checking over each and every dish, plating and replating, determination in her eyes, and domesticity running through her veins. Had Charles been able to work from home today, she would’ve been distracted more than one. Rather, Charles would’ve distracted her with kisses and caresses. The man enjoyed Barbara’s domestic side far too much sometimes. 

But, no, Charles had to go into the office today. Talking with lawyers wasn’t how he would’ve wanted to spend the morning, but he was managing to keep his blood pressure low, even if it meant drinking solely decaf, which made the conversation that much more inane. More than once his thoughts wandered to his partners at home, and he found himself glancing at the clock frequently, ready to return home and embrace each of them. 

Adam was doing his own part to set up and prepare. He was rearranging all the living room furniture to make room for what was more or less a nest of blankets and pillows. It was a break from restoration work which, while it was his favorite hobby and did bring in some extra cash, was more than welcome since the smell of wood stains and glues were hardly erotic. Delia had admitted to liking the smell of sawdust that stuck to him from time to time, and she was more than ready to jump on him after a day spent sanding away at table or dressers. The aspect of smells sticking to ghosts was still strange, but he would take that over the stereotype that ghosts smelt like dirt or sulfur. But, with nothing needing sanding, he wasn’t going to work with anything that smelt more offensive. With a final fluff of a pillow, he stood back and admired his handy work with a satisfied nod. 

“Adam, this looks incredible!” Delia exclaimed. Adam couldn’t help but admire her as she stood on the stairs, a silk dress clinging to her frame in all the right places and her hair falling in gentle curls. True to herself, not a hair was out of place, even if more of it was down than up. 

“You look incredible,” he insisted. She smiled wide at that and met him with a kiss and a hand staying at his waist. It was still new for Adam to be part of something beyond two people. Delia clearly had no problem with it, and he knew she had a history of having multiple partners at once, sexually at least. She didn’t like to speak much about her past romances, preaching her new-age spiritualism about not dwelling on the past. Adam was never that adventurous, was always timid and cautious. Even in death, Barbara found ways to bring him a little more out of his shell, including with this relationship. None of it would have started without her. 

The living room was filled with the smell of melting chocolate. The fondue pot was sitting far enough from the blankets where it wasn’t a fire hazard, but it was currently out of reach for the four. Not that it mattered, they had just finished up the main course and were all sitting snuggled close to each other, a tangle of limbs as they sipped wine and watched romantic comedies. The plates that were now almost completely empty sat on the blankets and floor, waiting to be cleaned up. At least, that’s all Barbara could think of. As much as she loved her partners, she wasn’t a fan of dirty dishes lying around and no amount of wine was going to shift her focus from them. She peeled herself away from the pack, with some minor complaints from the others. 

“I’m sorry, but I just need to get these cleaned up or I’m going to go insane,” she apologized. She gathered up the dishes, carefully staying out of the way of the TV.

“Do you need any help?” Charles offered. His face was slightly flushed from the wine, making him appear younger than the few silver hairs he had would suggest. 

Barbara smiled at him. “I’ve got it. Thank you though,” she said. She walked off to the kitchen, carefully balancing the plates. The kitchen was quiet and dark, with only the slightest noise from the TV buzzing in the background. She sighed, content with her afterlife and her family, and scraped the scraps of food into the trash and compost. As she was filling the sink with hot, soapy water to let the dishes soak in, a commotion filled the living room.

“Barbara, honey, can you bring some paper towel in here?” Adam yelled, panic in his voice. She quickly grabbed the whole roll and rushed into the living room.

A pool of dark brown liquid was slowly spreading across the floor. Charles and Delia were both standing and pushing the blankets away from it as Adam held the fondue pot in his hands. The gas burner had been extinguished, but the pot was still hot. No doubt that was why Adam was the one that had picked it up. Barbara quickly unrolled and ripped off several sheets of paper towel and jumped into action, quickly wiping up as much of the chocolate as she could. She frantic, handing off filled sheets to Adam and continuing to clean.   
Defeated, she set the last of the paper towels down. Everything was cleaned up, but there wasn’t anything left for fondue. It felt like the evening was ruined, the whole mood was ruined, and everyone was a little upset. Well, almost everyone. Delia began laughing, skipping any giggles and going straight to the kind of laughter that had her doubled over and tears running down her cheeks. Still laughing, she kneeled down and wrapped her arms around Barbara. 

“I don’t get it, what’s funny?” Charles asks. Adam shrugs as Delia continues to laugh and hug Barbara, who is sitting shocked in her grasp. 

“That was perfect,” Delia announces, with another laugh. “We were all trying so hard, and,” a gasping breath cuts her off, followed by more laughter. “We were trying so hard to make it perfect, and it was. Of course, something had to go wrong, that’s what made it perfect.” No one else could pin down exactly what she meant, but her laughter was contagious and slowly everyone started laughing too. Adam and Charles joined the women on the floor, embracing them. Eventually, the laughter quieted, and the unit sat together smiling. Whispers of confessions of love were exchanged, kisses shared. Before long the four were racing each other up the stairs to finish off the evening well before Lydia returned from her date.


End file.
